Starring John Saxon, David Huffman, Marianna Hill and Burt Young
Directed by Jeffrey Bloom
A Jerry Gross Organization Release
MPAA Theatrical Rating: R
This odd, somewhat original head scratcher from writer/director
Jeffrey Bloom does JAWS one better. You can't get to the water because some
unseen monster has moved under the beach and it's sucking down beachgoers. And
unseen is right. You barely get a glimpse of the thing when it shows up at the
end.
Normally that's not bad. Sometimes we need the
mystery, like the first half of JAWS. But here, it's too little too late. You
can feel for a jaded horror audience that might've been pissed due to lack of
creature.
BLOOD BEACH operates on its own terms, making it more
interesting than the glut of horror films in theaters at the time. It's also its downfall.
You keep waiting for something to happen that never does and every so often it
pops you in the back of the head just to see if you're awake. The tech credits are pro-grade and the actors are
perfectly cast; Burt Young's a howl as Neanderthal detective Royko. It has a laid back Southern California beach bum vibe to the overall tone and the gauzy cinematography matched with the effective score keep it creepy enough to sit out
the running time.
Yet it never comes together as a whole because somebody keeps forgetting this is a movie about a monster pulling people under the sand. Action, gore and nudity is supplied but none of it works in the way you expect it to work from a scare pic titled BLOOD BEACH. It's almost too aloof and arty during moments. There's times where it forgets it's a horror movie and becomes INVESTIGATION AT BLOOD BEACH, a police procedural not unlike LAW & ORDER.
There is rapist junk mutilation though.
Yet it never comes together as a whole because somebody keeps forgetting this is a movie about a monster pulling people under the sand. Action, gore and nudity is supplied but none of it works in the way you expect it to work from a scare pic titled BLOOD BEACH. It's almost too aloof and arty during moments. There's times where it forgets it's a horror movie and becomes INVESTIGATION AT BLOOD BEACH, a police procedural not unlike LAW & ORDER.
There is rapist junk mutilation though.
Without a doubt a huge influence on the 1990 sleeper
TREMORS, BLOOD BEACH is a rare bird: a film that would benefit from a remake.
That said, every few years I come back to BLOOD BEACH and re-watch it, if only
to lament on it's hard to pin down inadequacies. Something’s there and it's not under
the sand. In other words, required viewing. With Otis Young, Lena Pousette, Eleanor Zee, Stefan Gierasch and Darrell Fetty - EH
Above screen captures swiped from AV Maniacs.
EXTRA ADDED ARTWORK:
The zombie on this Turkish ad art kills me.
Above screen captures swiped from AV Maniacs.
EXTRA ADDED ARTWORK:
The zombie on this Turkish ad art kills me.
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